Johannesburg: Stamping his authority with a classy century, the dashing batsman Virat Kohli says promotion up the batting order enabled him to dictate terms to the opposition.
Virat said after the match Wednesday that he had been waiting for this opportunity to bat up the order and that he badly wanted to do in Test cricket as he is so used to going in at number three in ODIs.
“I like to be in the action early on, get in while conditions are tough and then dictate terms to the bowling," Kohli, who scored a brilliant 119 in India's 255 for five said.
Kohli said that he had a plan and was happy to execute it perfectly.
"I had a plan in mind that I wanted to stick to. I wasn't thinking about bowling, conditions or the wicket. I just wanted to execute my plan."
The plan was to counter-attack the bowling and not allow them to pepper the visitors with short-pitched stuff.
"Apparently, I was described as soft after the first ODI. But I always had it in my mind that we will get short bowling, unless you attack. If they are quality bowlers, good enough to play at this level, but so are you," Kohli said.
"So I was prepared and was watching the ball closely. I got into position early and played some pull strokes, and after that they started bowling at the fifth or sixth stump. So I don't know where their bodyline tactic went," said Kohli.
